'Lahore will always be Lahore, it does not want to be anything else'

City of Light Lahore

Did you know that Lahore is the fifteenth largest city in the world, with 460 historic buildings and a neighborhood called Moliya where Buddha is said to have once resided.
Do you know which tomb in Lahore is called the tomb of Cyprus and why Hazari Bagh was called the seat of power and has the tomb of Anarkali ever been used as a church?

Lahore is Lahore

These were mentioned at a recent symposium on the history of Lahore and the preservation of its historic buildings in Cambridge, Russia.

The spirit of the symposium was Sir Nicholas Barrington, who has been a diplomat in Pakistan for many years and has a special love for Lahore. The symposium was organized by the Ancient India and Iran Trust in association with the University of Cambridge's Center for South Asian Studies.

Sir Nicholas Barrington, who has been a diplomat in Pakistan for many years, talks about the importance of Chauburji

Why Symposium on Lahore in Cambridge?

"Lahore is a big city and one of the richest cities in South Asia in terms of historical artefacts," said Sir Nichols. People in the UK don't know it these days because they don't go there. " This is the time to tell people about the beauty of Pakistan and Lahore is one of the great places of Pakistan so the more people know it the better.
Dr Majeed Sheikh says there should be more research on Lahore

Dr. Majeed Sheikh Pakke from Wolfson College in Cambridge is from Lahore. In addition to writing a column on Lahore in Pakistan's English newspaper Dawn, he has written at least four books and several articles on Lahore.
He has a new theory on Lahore. They think that Lahore is much older than it is supposed to be.
According to Majeed Sheikh, “With this symposium, we want to show the world that archaeologists, historians, and scholars will know how old and important this city is and that there are only 460 historic buildings around it. ۔ There are not so many historic buildings anywhere in the world.

"Now we need to use archeology because we have history books that are a thousand years old," he said. We have read other books on Lahore, including the Hindu book Mahabharat, which are fictional stories.
Majid Sheikh told the BBC: "When British experts excavated here in 1959, they found 4,000-year-old pottery. Similarly, antiquities of 2900 years old were found in Mohali. This is the time when Harappa was coming to an end. So it is very clear that Lahore has been settled here from the beginning and it starts from the Harappan era.

He said that historic buildings in Lahore were not being maintained properly. "This  are 21 one  dilapidated buildings in Lahore Fort alone," he said. Some work is being done but there is still a lot of work to be done. For example, the roof of Sheesh Mahal had collapsed. The Danes paid for it and saved it, but it's still not very good. "

He further said about the historical buildings in Pakistan, “The condition of the newly written, Diwan-e-Khas and the royal kitchen is bad which is being rebuilt against the principles of archeology. Seeing the condition of Kharak Singh's mansion makes me cry.

Has this ancient city on the banks of the Ravi River been given the importance it deserves for centuries?

Anarkali's tomb was sometimes used as a church and sometimes as a government office

Multan and Lahore top the list

Iftikhar Malik, a history professor at Bath Spa University in the UK, believes the importance of Multan and Lahore in the subcontinent cannot be underestimated. Both cities have had a profound effect on the region's history.

Speaking of Multan, he said, “The location of Multan was such that one could go there from both Afghanistan and Iran. And it was safer than any other door. And it was open all year round. It didn't snow here. It was open to traders, mystics and assassins. So we see that there is fighting here in the time of Alexander the Great and this is the passage from which religions like Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Islam come and affect the whole of South Asia.

Regarding the Indus Valley, he said, "Pakistan or the Indus Valley, which is the western region of South Asia, has mostly had cultural, military and political influence and attacks from the West." They used to pass through what is now the border of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. ”Explaining the importance of Lahore, Prof. Malik said,“ I think Delhi, Lucknow, or the southern cities of Deccan, Hyderabad, Poona and Mumbai. All are relatively new cities. Even Delhi is new.

"Whether it was the Aryan period or the time of Alexander the Great or the subsequent Hindu dynasty after which the Muslims came, Lahore was the largest commercial, cultural, historical and political city in all these periods," he said. Multan had a military significance but Lahore was many times more important. The historical significance of Lahore is second to none in terms of Islam, Islam and Sikhism and in terms of British missionaries.

The tomb of Cyprus, about which very few people know

The ruins show that the building was great

Faqir Syed Ejazuddin OBE is an internationally renowned art historian. He has so far written about 18 books on the history and culture of the subcontinent. Speaking of Lahore, he says that the ruins show that the building was great.
He said that there have been many abuses with Punjab. The Partition of 1947 and the blood and dust that followed was an abuse of the province. Referring to the recent Briggs, he said, "Just think, Red Cliff, who has never been here, should be given five weeks to sign the Briggs." ۔ He said that Lahore was destroyed and rebuilt many times, looted and settled and then rebuilt.
Ahur is an example of survival. The situation in Lahore is a part of its past. Its future has yet to take shape. Lahore will always be Lahore, it does not want to be anything else.

He is saddened by how the historic buildings of Lahore have disappeared one by one.
He specifically mentioned the recent Orange Line project as how it is directly damaging historic buildings like Shalimar Bagh and Chauburji in Lahore.


Threat to the Orange Line and cultural heritage

Threat to the Orange Line and cultural heritage

The same concern was expressed by Robin Cunningham, a professor at Durham University. Professor Robin belongs to the UNESCO Department of Cultural Heritage which is examining the impact of the Orange Line project on archeology in Pakistan. He said the matter was now in court so he would not comment on it.
But with the help of slides, he showed how the Orange Line can destroy Shalimar Bagh, but in many places. Most of its historic water pumps have been bulldozed, leaving only one water pump. Just two hundred feet in front of the garden, the two layers of the Orange Line are anxious to meet.

Bishop Dr. Michael Nazir also complained that the Orange Line project was affecting many historic buildings in Lahore, especially the cathedral church. He said that not only the cathedral but also many churches were not taken care of during the planning of the Orange Line and now it is a threat to them.

Robert Hullen Brand, a professor at Eindmber University, spoke of the Iranian influence on Mughal architecture and how the Iranian seal was seen on the size, color, gardens and construction of tombs.

Dr. Mehreen Sheida Rizvi's research is on the tomb complex of Shahdara

Dr. Mehreen Sheida Rizvi of the School of Oriental and South Asian Studies has done research on the tomb complex at Shahdara. These tombs include the tombs of Mughal King Jahangir, his wife Noor Jahan and Noor Jahan's brother Asif Jah.
He said that the tomb of Noor Jahan that we see today was probably not like that in the beginning. "We see a bad brick structure right now. Everything has been taken off from the outside, all the decoration and decoration from inside the tomb is slowly falling.
According to Dr. Mehreen, "Another is  reason for the her relatively of the simple of the  tomb may be that when she was constructing her own tomb and the tomb of Jahangir, there was such an effect in that  court of her is king." There was no influence when she was queen. She lived almost in exile there and her budget was very limited. Shah Jahan kept him on an annual pension of Rs 200,000.

According to N, this tomb was built between 1628 and 1645. By the Sikh period, after 1760, the tomb had been severely damaged. The tomb has a long history of destruction and looting. The tomb of Asif Khan, which was built later, also changed the plan of this tomb. It had a lot to do with the relationship between Noor Jahan and Shah Jahan. He hated her because she wanted her son-in-law to be king.

Dr. Mehreen believes that the tomb has been repaired in the last twenty years, but so badly that it appears that part of it is not a historic building but a recent one. And it is slowly starting to fall because the work was so bad and in many places concrete has been laid instead of stone. But he is very bad.

Twelfth of Prince Kamran on the banks of the river Ravi

In his statement, Professor Robinson of the University of London described how Lahore has been a center of power. Sources of power from Hazari Bagh and Shahdara to poetry and cricket matches at Government College and Islamia College in Lahore were mentioned. From Lala Amarnath to AH Kardar and from Fazal Mahmood to Khan Muhammad.

But the heart was very happy that in one hall about a hundred Englishmen were mentioning one building in Lahore and one door in the inner city as if they had grown up.